This description relates to surface mounting a power converter.
In some modular DC—DC power conversion products, the DC input voltage is greater than the DC output voltage, e.g., the input voltage may be 48 VDC, and the DC output voltage may be 1.8 VDC. With electronic circuits trending towards lower operating voltages, the output currents delivered by many DC—DC converters have increased.
DC—DC converters provide a so-called “pinout”, for making connections to their inputs and outputs. An example of one such pinout is shown in FIG. 1. In the Figure, which is an exploded view of a DC—DC converter module 10 mounted on a printed circuit board 12, the DC—DC converter pinout comprises output voltage connection pins 14, input voltage connection pins 16 and input and output control pins 17. Because the output pins typically carry more current than the input pins their diameter (e.g., 0.080″ (2.0 mm)) may be larger than the diameter (e.g., 0.040″ (11.0 mm)) of the input and control pins. All of the pins are inserted into mating holes 18, 20 in the printed circuit board 12 and are soldered to etches 22, 24, 26 in and around the holes. Pins of the kind described above are useful up to about 40 Amperes. Above 40 Amperes, either larger diameter pins, or a plurality of pins, may be used.
DC—DC converters may also be mounted using surface mount power interconnections involving solder-ball-grid arrays or “J-lead” lead frames, examples of which are described or illustrated in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/303,613, “Power Converter Package and Thermal Management”, filed on Nov. 25, 2002, and in U.S. Design Patent Application No. 29/175,342, “Power Converter Body” (referred to, respectively, as the “'613 application” and the “'342 application”), filed on Feb. 3, 2003, both assigned to the same assignee as this application and both incorporated here by reference. As described in the '342 application, and shown in FIG. 2, a power converter module 30 may be surface mounted to a substrate 34 by connecting the solder-ball-grid arrays 31a, 31b to corresponding conductive etch patterns 33a, 33b on the surface of the substrate 34. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the bottom surface of the power converter module extends through an aperture 35 in the substrate.